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1306 [lbo-talk] Shot dead in London -- rank: 1000

The WEEK ending 24 July 2005 Crime prevention and arbitrary government Following the execution of Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes in public on Friday, the Metropolitan Police has confirmed its policy of shoot-to-kill against suspected suicide bombers. Politicians have rushed to defend the police and the leading human rights pressure group Liberty has accepted the need for such a policy. These statements indicate the extent of the political consensus underlying the 'war on terror' a ...

Document Size:	7445
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Jul 26 10:53:13 PDT 2005

1307 [lbo-talk] China's growth -- rank: 1000

Uhlas' argument ('China's growth', lbo-talk Digest, Vol 19, Issue 205) that expatriate Chinese capital re-locating to the mainland is just foreign capital makes sense from a 'capital-logic' point of view. And I sympathise with the argument that one oughtn't see the ethnicity of the investors as decisive. But I would like to turn that around and argue that the ethnic traits of the expatriate Chinese traders arise out of the prospects for development in the region. The clannish loyalty, thrift, hi ...

Document Size:	6125
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Jul 21 16:32:12 PDT 2005

1308 [lbo-talk] China's growth -- rank: 1000

Ulhas: "I never said anything about 'comprador' capitalist class. 'Comprador' is a meaningless category. Which capital doesn't make substantial contribution to indigenous development?" No, I introduced "comprador", which might be an overextended category, but does indeed describe the Chinese merchant class that subordinated itself to foreign investment. They retreated to the margins of Chinese society (like Hong Kong and Macao), eventually transforming themselves into an expa ...

Document Size:	5669
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Jul 21 12:31:05 PDT 2005

1309 [lbo-talk] China's growth -- rank: 1000

Uhlas: "Don't China's exports to the developed world make substantial contribution to economic growth?" It certainly does, but those exports also make a substantial contribution to indigenous development (which was not always the case when the 'comprador' capitalist class subordinated Chinese development to foreign investment in the early 20C.). China's development today is pushed forward by funds from returning expatriate Chinese traders, not foreign investment alone. -------------- n ...

Document Size:	5131
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Jul 21 02:29:01 PDT 2005

1310 [lbo-talk] Western states have created the biggest wars in history -- rank: 1000

Doug, taking issue with Michael P over whether Rwandan and other massacres in the 3rd world are on a par with the record of Western Imperialism: "Which of course had nothing to do with the heritage of imperialism? Add up the body count for the colonization of the Americas, Africa, and South Asia, plus two world wars, plus Indochina, plus Iraq sanctions - an incomplete list - and you've got 500 years of bloodbaths." I think part of the difficulty dealing with this history is that there ...

Document Size:	9104
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Jul 20 12:34:21 PDT 2005

1311 [lbo-talk] China's growth (was Finding the elephant in the room) -- rank: 1000

Uhlas: "Imperialism is developing China on a massive scale right now." I argue that it is Chinese capital that it developing China right now, a departure from the dependent industrial development of China in the early 20C. China's Comprador Capitalism is Coming Home, Review of Radical Political Economy, Vol. 37, No. 2, (2005) http://rrp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/37/2/196 James Heartfield

Document Size:	5212
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Jul 20 08:36:19 PDT 2005

1312 [lbo-talk] Leigh flips out -- rank: 1000

Leigh M: "What if AQ is just saying: Fuck YOUR definition of democracy, our culture & societies have worked just as well as yours, and you'll leave us alone now... and we might have to kill a few of you to impress you that we mean it, and a certain percentage of muslims in every country in the world believes that... Including Iraqis." I hope that this is a parody, for your sake, and that I am making a mistake in replying to it. Leigh imagines Osama bin Laden as a kind of Jim Belush ...

Document Size:	7010
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Jul 19 11:49:00 PDT 2005

1313 [lbo-talk] Re: Identity wars, was fartback -- rank: 1000

Leigh Meyers wrote, in answer to the question, 'if Al Qaeda is a blow against repression, why are the bombers mostly educated western or Saudi muslims' (I paraphrase): >Why was the Cuban revolution led by a Columbia educated >lawyer, and a dentist(...in his homeland that's "doctor"). It is a bad comparison. The Cuban revolution was popular, and its military struggle was popular, too. By contrast, the London bombings have been condemned by every Islamic group in Britain, and many ...

Document Size:	6018
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Jul 18 16:23:02 PDT 2005

1314 [lbo-talk] specious generalizations... -- rank: 1000

KJ writes "Increasingly, there seems little doubt that Iraq was, at the least, one of the motivations. It _may_ well have been the tipping point for the persons in question." And America's subservience to the Zionist Occupation Government was Timothy McVeigh's motivation for the Oklahoma bombing, western society's subservience to technology was the Unabomber's motivation, while the Son of Sam was told to kill people by his dog. Iraq might have featured in the London bomber's motivation ...

Document Size:	7653
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Jul 17 15:22:58 PDT 2005

1315 [lbo-talk] What caused the bombers to bomb? -- rank: 1000

What caused the bombings? The bombers. Did Tony Blair do it? No. He had a cast-iron alibi, being in Gleneagles, signing the G8 agreement at the time. Sociology can explain social trends, but the London bombings are too unique an event to yield to a sociological explanation. In statistical terms, Britain's Muslims are not bombers. Any sociological investigation would have to explain their overwhelmingly peaceable and law-abiding nature. Political science might yield some insights, but of course p ...

Document Size:	7356
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Jul 16 10:38:25 PDT 2005

1316 [lbo-talk] Re: Low Life (was "Come friendly bombers" ) -- rank: 1000

> CB: You think the bombers didn't identify > at all with the colored victims of the white British invasions ? I honestly do not think so, Charles. Certainly the bombers are unlikely to have sympathised with the 500 Yugoslavs killed in the British/American bombings of 1999. On the contrary, they wanted to see more of them killed, and many Al Qaeda supporters were volunteers in the war against the Serbs, which was the last occasion when Osama bin Laden directly collaborated with the US auth ...

Document Size:	6884
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Jul 15 15:59:54 PDT 2005

1317 [lbo-talk] Fartback -- rank: 1000

Gary? writes: "The bombing may not be a popular reaction now but if we continue how long before it is ? Any individual/group angry with western hypocrisy has a focus now." And Autoplectic in a similar vein: "Or they may be trying to kick-start a different social movement altogether -because the previous models have failed- which hasn't yet reached crucial tippings points." But all the signs are that support for Islamic fundamentalism is on the wane. See the recent Pew Researc ...

Document Size:	6588
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Jul 15 08:13:36 PDT 2005

1318 [lbo-talk] Fartback -- rank: 1000

Doug writes: > Foreign policy, British and American, is obviously a big part of the > story, but these guys were British, and hardly poor. So the mechanism > is a bit more complex than simple blowback. And Michael P.: "don't lefties and liberals overdo the poverty breeds terrorism line?" Part of the problem is accepting the blanket label, terrorism, which is more often than not, loaded. It is important to distinguish the popular struggles that were branded terrorism (I am thin ...

Document Size:	7619
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Jul 15 00:17:49 PDT 2005

1319 [lbo-talk] Stiff upper lip (was 'Come Friendly Bomber') -- rank: 1000

Carl writes 'Come on James, what happened to that stiff upper lip'. Well, sorry if I went postal on you, but like you said, the stiff upper lip is a myth. As penance, I carried on my Summer School lecture through the official two minutes silence for the bomb victims today, and have posted up a piss-take of the 'Blitz Spirit'. http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAC66.htm I still think it is imposing a over-rational interpretation on the bombers motives to see them as a response to the i ...

Document Size:	5530
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Jul 14 09:41:10 PDT 2005

1320 [lbo-talk] "Come friendly bombers" -- rank: 1000

Carl 'bomb on' Remick affects boredom to conceal his hatred of London's bomb victims: '<Yawn> Brits have merely taken the scenic route to the same destination -- reelecting a government that has waged illegal war.' The meaning is clear: the "Brits" (would he call the bombers "Pakis"?) are guilty of waging war against the Iraqis, they elected the government so they must "pay the price", i.e. their lives. Plainly all the caveats about 'of course nobody supports ...

Document Size:	6251
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Jul 13 22:07:48 PDT 2005